


The Day Before

by orphan_account



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Midnight Sun, Pre-Twilight Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-22
Updated: 2012-04-22
Packaged: 2017-11-04 03:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/389175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Twilight, we are with Bella the day before she goes to Forks High School and her world is changed forever.  But what was happening in the Cullen house?  This quick series of drabbles goes through the minds of each of the Cullens the day before they meet Bella Swan at school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Carlisle

  **The Day Before - Carlisle**

_  
_

When Alice and Jasper came to us in 1950, I little realized what it would mean to have a seer in our family. I had changed Edward without expectation of anything extraordinary and was astonished to find he heard my thoughts. I confess to a slight (very slight) initial disappointment when I found that my dearest Esme was not similarly gifted.

Neither were Rosalie or Emmett, whom I also changed.

I laughed at myself at times, knowing Edward understood and forgave me my small vanity.

Today, though, my focus has been on Alice. She has been bouncing, giddy with anticipation, today more than any other day since I have known her. She and her mate, Jasper, brought two powerful gifts to my family and I have done my best to utilize them to our benefit while letting them be as "human" as they wished.

Alice loves trying to be human. I pity her, sometimes. I know her mate knows this, but we keep it as a secret between us.

"She's going to be my friend!" Alice reminded all of us as she checked everyone's clothes for tomorrow. "My first human friend!" Her happiness was infectious, causing Jasper to almost reel in his gift.

"Is there anything I will need to know?" I wondered in my capacity as physician as well as the head of what is called The Olympic Coven in our world of vampires. "Anything I should be aware of, that you can see?"

Alice cocked her head at me, her golden eyes dazzling. "There are not a lot of decisions made yet that will put her in your path...but..." Calming down, her expression sobered. "Jasper did a background check on her. She and the ER staff in Phoenix are old friends."

I chuckled. "Let's hope she and I never have occasion to meet one another."

"Well you'll have to!" Alice insisted, twirling away and all but dancing up the stairs. "We're going to be best friends and I am determined to have a sleep-over!"

"With a human?" Rosalie protested from the living room sofa, where she was poring over  _Car & Driver_ magazine. "In our home?"

"No, at hers!"

Edward poked his head out from my office and eyed me from the second floor. He smiled crookedly. "My sister needs to get out more."


	2. Jasper

  **The Day Before - Jasper**

 

“We should hunt,” Emmett said, rubbing his hands together.  That he eyed me was annoying in the extreme.  His _Especially you_ went unsaid, but I got the message anyway.  

 

I was trying – still – to manage the temptation.  I had been feeding from animals for over fifty years, but I had spent more decades than that _immersed_ in human blood.  It was a struggle for me to resist but I would. I was stronger than my thirst. I had to be, to be the man I knew I could be.

 

“No, I’m fine,” I said mildly, picking up the latest historical travesty to be issued by a university press on the War Between the States.

 

“You really should,” Alice murmured.  She was studying the marketing trends on my laptop for investment purposes.  

 

“I am not going to bite your new best friend,” I growled, irritated.

 

“No, you won’t. This has nothing to do with her.”

 

“I’m fine. I told you that.”

 

Edward started playing, the music harsh and authoritative.  I pushed out a breath and flashed up to my room.  “I am fine,” I repeated, over-enunciating each word.  “I will _be_ fine tomorrow.”

 

Disbelief hit me from several sources and I growled, deep in my chest. They didn’t trust me. “I could just drop out and stay home...”

 

“No! You have to be there! You have to meet her. She’s going to be –”

 

“Your first human friend!” we all chanted in chorus.

 

There was a moment of utter stillness, into which poured amusement and exasperation.  “Well, she is!”

 

Edward changed his tune to a dirge.  I didn’t know if it meant he was bored or if he thought I was going to kill someone tomorrow.  

 

My brother really needs to get out more.


	3. Edward

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plan on these little drabbles is merely to present the Cullens in the order in which they were changed. So, here's Edward...

**The Day Before - Edward**

The flashes from Alice's mind were – distracting. Bella Swan was utterly average, in appearance and in all of Alice's visions. Maybe that was the draw for Alice – the new girl's absolute normalcy.

I left the house to run. I had no intention of running anywhere near Chief Swan's house. That was all I needed, one more banal teenage mind to have to learn to listen to and ignore. The shadows of the forest were peaceful, no human thoughts and I eventually outran those of my family so that there was peace...

Quiet.

I craved quiet. Solitude of the mind. Sometimes, I wondered what it would be like, to be alone in my head. Like I was in the forest, yes, but for days at a time. Weeks. Years, even. Eternity was a long time to live alone as a vampire, but at least most of our kind had the privacy of their own minds in which to rest.

Tomorrow, we would be plowing once more into the cacophony of sound that was high school. If God had not abandoned me upon my change, I would beg for him to give me a rest from it. A rest from the constant mental pandemonium. The pettiness.

I loved my family and would not choose to be apart from them, but – the unending teenage life was both stifling and exhausting.

Alice's mental voice was very strong and it called me over the miles.  _Edward! Don't you even think of running off to Alaska. Don't even think it!_

As if I would.

 _Esme is worried you'll choose Tanya as your mate, you know,_  Alice teased as I neared the house.

"Oh, Esme," I muttered, too far for her to hear me. She hated that I was alone.

My mother needed to get out more.

* * *

_E/N: For those who think about such things, I am using as my primary source (ha!) the version of Midnight Sun that I read on SM's website._


	4. Alice

**The Day Before - Alice**

I wasn't blind. I knew everyone was teasing me and laughing at me for being so excited about having a human friend. I think I might have caught a quick flash of pity in Carlisle's eyes.

That hurt. He didn't know. None of them did, really. They didn't know how it felt not to remember anything from before. Which sucked, and not in a good way, because I remembered way too much ever since.

When we first joined the Cullens, Jasper and I, I started off in high school. Jasper wasn't quite ready yet, so he played the role of Carlisle's cousin. I went to high school and in the year 1951, that was so much fun! Edward and I played like we were brother and sister and we went to the cafeteria together and he told me what everyone was thinking.

I wanted to make friends, though. I wanted to watch and study and enjoy the human girls all around us. To talk about boys and tell them about Jasper. But each girl I thought of approaching in the halls – Peggy or Linda or Carole or Nancy – left me with a vision of unease. None of them really wanted to talk to me, when I made the decision to talk to them. I saw their responses in their faces. In their posture. They were afraid of me. Even though I was small and looked helpless and tried to wear nice clothes...

They didn't want to be friends.

As the decades passed, I would try sometimes. I would decide to introduce myself to a girl in my classes. Sometimes, their initial response wasn't too negative and I'd angle for a double-date. But always, after I would decide, the visions would come.

Once, the decision that mattered was one not made until Jasper and I were out with the other couple. We had to make it look like a car fire and then we had to keep going to school, keep on with our pretenses...

After that, I felt too much for my poor Jasper to try to be friends with anyone again.

 _Until_  the word spread that Charlie Swan's daughter would be coming to live with him. Jasper did a background check instead and found a picture for me. I decided to talk to her – because she looked approachable – and –

A flurry of hopeful images twirled in my mind. Bella Swan and I would have lunch together. She and I would have classes together and I saw her smile at me. We would go shopping and there was a dance in there somewhere. Kind of formal, so maybe a prom!

And no matter what I decided, these visions stayed fairly constant. If I had been human, I would have had goosebumps. Here, in the tiny town of Forks, there was going to be a girl who would not be afraid of me. She would be my friend.

My first and best human friend.

I was still humming about this as I looked up the stock reports on my laptop. Jasper was growling on the sofa, muttering about the Civil War.

My husband really needs to get out more.


	5. Esme

**The Day Before - Esme**

Sunday is not my normal marketing day, but I went to the Thriftway anyway. It was a sad little supermarket as such things go, but I so enjoyed the – the _atmosphere_  in this place. It wasn't the decoration – they could have benefited from a renovation – but the people. Forks was a small town and small town people talked. Hearing the local gossip made me feel more a part of things.

Then, too, as I told Carlisle, I could hear what people thought about the children.

But that day, I was actually not going for any noble purpose. I just wanted to be first to see the girl Alice was so excited about. I wanted to see Bella Swan. It was just a guess, but I knew that Charlie Swan was a bachelor and I imagined he would take his daughter to the market at the very least so that she could get a few things they might need for the house.

Or personal items. I knew for certain that the chief wouldn't have anything in his house a girl would need! How could he? Men were so unaware. Sometimes, even my wonderful mate lacked a certain insight.

So I went to the store, expecting to see Charlie and his daughter. I didn't know what she looked like, of course, so I was waiting to see him. I dawdled in the cereal aisle, waiting. Returned a bit later with a list of things I had pretended to forget. Still, no Charlie.

But then I saw a young lady with damp brown hair and large brown eyes who was so pale I almost thought she was one of us.

"Oh, there's Charlie's girl," one of the ladies in Canned Foods whispered.

"Really? Where?" another said, not whispering at all.

The curiosity was tangible even to me – and I have no gift like my son, Jasper.

I peeked down an aisle and saw the girl with the brown hair. She was being greeted by the cashier and I knew then for certain.

I returned home, hoping that everything would go as Alice saw it might, the next day. Bella Swan looked very unassuming, but she was doing the family marketing all alone, which meant she must be quite mature.

I hoped so.

Carlisle just laughed when I told him my story as he read the latest medical journal.

I sniffed. "Fine, you keep laughing."

He looked up at me, his eyes wise but cautious. "Esme, try not to be disappointed."

"You should have more faith, Carlisle. You really need to get out more."


	6. Rosalie

**The Day Before - Rosalie**

I loved Alice. Really. But her enthusiasms were exhausting. Wanting to bring a human girl into her life? That might mean into _our_ lives? A _human_?

She said there would be slumber parties. Hell. Like we need those. What did she think she needed that we, her family, couldn't give her? Mated to a kick-ass warrior – yes, he had caused us to move more than I liked, but he was _trying_ and I did appreciate that – able to see to our finances which we _all_ appreciated, and she had a family.

Didn't she know that was enough?

I was positive that Miss Isabella Swan would treat us just the way all the other brainless girls in that high school did. She would swoon over my brothers, or maybe me if she went that way, but once she tried talking to us, she would get all scared and think we were weird and then she would gossip about us like the rest.

The only problem with that scenario was that my sister would be disappointed.

At least we would all be here to support her. Because that was what families did.

"Where are you going, Esme?"

"The market, dear. I forgot something."

"We're vampires. What did you forget? Hairspray?" I smiled and tossed a length of my own hair over my shoulder.

"Oh, thank you, dear. I did forget that. I'll be back soon."

Esme really needs to get _out_ more.


	7. Emmett

**The Day Before - Emmett**

Hunting after dark was the best. I didn't range far, but I managed to find a good herd of deer. Not my favorite, but if I plan my trajectory just right, I can land on two at once, breaking their spines but allowing their hearts to keep beating.

On deer, that was safe. Not so safe for a bear.

Sated, I ran home. Alice was in our room, Rose's and mine, planning our wardrobe for the next day.

"Come on, Alice!" I protested, shaking my head at the white corded sweater. "I'm gonna look like an effin' corpse."

"No no no. She'll think you're huge, you know. And powerful. So go with it."

I bit back a smile when my wife stiffened. "She's going to be staring at my husband? What kind of a slut...?"

"Not like that!" Alice said, hands up like a peacemaker. "No. She doesn't know he's married, in my vision. She just thinks he's huge. You can see it on her face." So she thought I'd be  _huge_? A few guys-only things to say came to mind, but only Edward heard them.

Rosalie tossed her head, exposing her long throat. Damn, she knew that got me every time. I rolled my shoulders and her eyelids drooped a little.

Alice cleared her throat. "Fine. I'm going."

She turned off the light as she left our room. It didn't matter. We spent the rest of the night in the dark, Rose and I, but that never made any difference. I loved being a vampire.

Not all of us did. I heard Edward's window open and close as he left. _Wish he had a mate of his own. Then he wouldn't have to go out so often._

 

_The End_


End file.
